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Roche, who was born in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, France and is the son of former cycling champion Stephen Roche and his former wife, Lydia, nephew of former cycling professionals Laurence Roche and Neil Martin and cousin of 2008 Irish road champion Dan Martin. In childhood he resided in both Ireland and France. He lived in Dublin from 1996 to 1999, where he was educated at Lycée Français d'Irlande in Foxrock for two years, and Blackrock College, a private school, for one year. During this period he was a keen soccer and rugby player.[4] He moved to southern France in 1999, where he spent most of life since.[4]

He turned professional at the end of 2004, with team Cofidis and became one of the youngest UCI ProTour racers.[5] As his father is Irish and his mother French, Roche had dual nationality as an amateur. In early 2005, Roche was told by French officials to choose between his two nationalities. Roche declared for France as he was planning to spend the rest of his life in France.[6] The loss of Roche was a blow to Irish cycling,[7] as he had won the 2002 Junior Tour of Ireland[8] and finished third in the 2004 Irish Elite championship.[9] However, six months later, the UCI and Cycling Ireland told Roche he was given incorrect information, and that he could compete for Ireland and keep his two nationalities, which he did.[10]

Roche signed a two-year contract with Ag2r–La Mondiale following the disbandment of Crédit Agricole. For most part of the year and after a solid performance in the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Roche was in consideration for the Tour de France team and after winning the Irish National Road Race Championships for the first time in June 2009, it was announced that Roche had been selected by Ag2r–La Mondiale to ride his first Tour de France the following month. He had a fine debut Tour, finishing in 23rd place overall and 5th in the points classification. He had five top ten placings in the race and finished 2nd on stage 14.

After the Tour, Roche finished 8th in the Clásica de San Sebastián and in September, he led Ag2r–La Mondiale at the Vuelta a España. His performance was even better than during the Tour de France, as he was really close to the best climbers of the race, losing very little time in stages with a mountain top finish. He finished 7th overall however was promoted to 6th overall after Ezequiel Mosquera's second place was annulled. He finished only five minutes and three seconds behind overall winner Vincenzo Nibali. This place was the best in a Grand Tour by an Irishman since 1988. The performance lifted him to 32nd in the year end UCI World Rankings with 148 points. Roche was part of the three-man Irish team at the 2010 World Championships in September.

Roche's season was hampered by injuries and crashes, particularly by one in the Critérium du Dauphiné[16] He entered the Tour de France as a team leader again, but quickly realized he had not fully recovered from the crash and could not hope for a good general classification. He got in a number of unsuccessful breaks in the final week, hoping to grab a stage win, and eventually finished 26th overall. He also rode the Vuelta a España, finishing 16th overall.

In October, Roche won the 3rd stage of the inaugural Tour of Beijing.[17][18] This marked his first international victory in three years and his first win on the World Tour. He finished the season world ranked 150th with 19 ranking points.

Roche published a memoir in 2011 called Inside the Peloton. It was the winner of the Sports Book category at that year's Irish Book Awards.

Roche renounced his French citizenship in 2012, becoming solely an Irish national.[4] He showed some form with top-20 finishes in Paris–Nice and the Tour of California. He finished 10th overall in the Tour de Suisse, and 2nd and 3rd respectively in the National Road Race and Time Trial Championships before riding the Tour de France. Roche moved up to seventh overall on the first mountain stage seven which finished on La Planche des Belles Filles. However he lost time over the time trial on stage nine and rest of the mountain stages. On stage 18, Roche broke clear of the peloton in the last 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) with Luis León Sánchez. The pair passed the day's breakaway and looked set to contest the stage win only to for Mark Cavendish to sprint past in the final 200 metres (660 feet). Roche sat 11th overall heading into the time trial on stage 20 and targeted a top ten finish, but a weak time trial saw him drop a place to 12th. Roche, along with Dan Martin and David McCann, represented Ireland in the Olympic Games Road Race. He then rode the Vuelta a España where he had a good start and sat seventh overall by the second week of the race. However, he struggled through the last week of the race and dropped down to 12th overall by the end of the race.

On 1 August, it was announced that Roche would leave Ag2r–La Mondiale at the end of the 2012 season, ending an eight-year association with French-registered teams.[19] He signed a two-year contract with Saxo–Tinkoff for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.[20]

Throughout much of the season with Saxo–Tinkoff including the Tour de France, he rode as a domestique for Alberto Contador with few results. After a good performance at the Clásica de San Sebastián finishing 5th, he was given leadership at the Vuelta a España. On 25 August, Roche won stage two of the Vuelta by breaking away with three others on the final climb at the end of the 177 km (110.0 mi) stage from Pontevedra to Alto Do Monte Da Groba.[21][22] Roche held the leader's red jersey until stage 8, and also held the lead of the points, mountains and combination classifications at one stage in the race. On stage 8 Roche lost the jersey finishing eight seconds behind Daniel Moreno to fall one second behind in the general classification. After stage 13 Roche was 2nd overall but on a cold day to Andorra on stage 14 he dropped to 6th overall. He went on to finish 5th overall in the general classification, his best result to date in a Grand Tour.[23][24] Later that year Roche again competed for Ireland in the World Championships and the World Time Trial Championships where he finished 13th.

Roche had few early season results before participating in the Giro d'Italia which started on the island of Ireland and was given the role as co-leader with Rafał Majka. Roche also took part at the Tour de France as a domestique to Alberto Contador. Before the Tour, Roche won the overall classification of the Route du Sud ahead of Alejandro Valverde. He won the queen stage win in the process and also the points classification. This was his first stage race victory and was a race which his father also won in 1985.[25] Roche went into the Tour of Britain expecting a good result[26] and placed 5th overall.

After a disrupted winter training due to more than one spider infection while riding,[30] Roche struggled with few early season results. At the end of April Roche competed in the Tour de Yorkshire looking for a good result. On the final stage Roche attacked a group of favourites alongside Thomas Voeckler where he was beaten in the final sprint to the line. This gave him 2nd place overall in the general classification. After this race it was confirmed that Roche would take part in the Giro d'Italia for a third time in his career. Roche started the race as a backup general classification rider to Mikel Landa in the first five days of racing, where he was placed in the top 10 overall. His form faded over the race but helped his teammate Mikel Nieve win the mountains classification. In June Roche completed the double at the Irish National Cycling Championships winning the time trial ahead of Eddie Dunbar and Ryan Mullen, and winning the road race ahead of Matt Brammeier.

Roche took the Red Jersey on Stage 2 of the 2019 Vuelta a España after being part of a six-man group who attacked in the final kilometres of the stage.[32] He held the jersey until Stage 5, however he crashed out on stage 6, being one of four riders to abandon due to the crash. He was fifth in the general classification at the start of the stage.[33]